ReactiveCocoa vs RxSwift - pros and cons?

You can use the reactive programming frameworks in iOS application development. To use it, the ReactiveCocoa and RxSwift frameworks are the best options to implement the features. Both frameworks provide a way to handle asynchronous events and data streams and are similar in many ways.

What is ReactiveCocoa?

You can use the ReactiveCocoa framework to adopt the reactive programming in your iOS, macOS, and watchOS platforms. Using reactive programming, you can handle asynchronous events and data streams easily. This framework has been built on top of Objective-C language.

This framework provides you with some tools to work with streams of values such as signals and events. Even you can perform complex operations on those streams like filtering, mapping or reducing, etc.

Some of the key features of ReactiveCocoa include −

• Signal − This is a stream of values that can be observed and manipulated.

• Event − Define a stream of discrete events, such as user interactions.

• SignalProducer − Acts as a factory for creating signals.

• Action − It acts as a type that encapsulates a signal and a command.

• RACCommand − This is a command that encapsulates a signal and a signal producer.

Pros of ReactiveCocoa

• It has been around for longer and has a larger community, which means more resources and support are available.

• It provides a more elegant and expressive syntax for chaining operations.

• It has a built-in scheduler for managing concurrency.

Cons of ReactiveCocoa

• It has a steeper learning curve than RxSwift due to its functional nature and use of monads.

• It can be less efficient than RxSwift, as it uses Objective-C under the hood.

What is RxSwift?

This framework provides a set of tools to work on streams of values. It includes observables and subjects. You can use this framework to perform complex operations on those streams. You can perform filtering, mapping, and reducing. This framework has been built on top of the Swift language. That’s why this is more familiar and approachable for most iOS developers.

Some of the key features of RxSwift include

• Observable − Acts as a stream of values that can be observed and manipulated.

• Subject − This is a type that can both act as an observer and as an observable.

• Operators − It is a set of functions that can transform and manipulate observables.

• Schedulers − This is a way to control the concurrency and threading of observables.

Pros of RxSwift

• Built on top of the Swift language, which makes it more familiar and approachable for Swift developers.

• Has a more efficient implementation than ReactiveCocoa.

• Has more active development than ReactiveCocoa, which means more frequent updates and enhanced features.

Cons of RxSwift

• Has a less elegant syntax for chaining operations.

• Has a less mature and smaller community compared to ReactiveCocoa.

ReactiveCocoa vs RxSwift in Swift

ReactiveCocoa	RxSwift
It is developed by GitHub and built on top of Objective-C.	It is written in Swift language.
This is an old framework that has a large community.	Gaining more popularity because of the built-in Swift language.
A bit difficult to understand as it has complex syntax.	Written in Swift that's why it is easy to understand and write.
It is very rich in case of error handling.	Still has some fallbacks to handle the errors.
This framework has more operators to use.	Still adding more operators in every version released.
Reactive programming makes debugging and testing process easy.	Still adding support to make the debugging process easy.

Conclusion

Building reactive apps may be done with the help of the robust and adaptable frameworks ReactiveCocoa and RxSwift. They both offer a functional programming paradigm-based method for dealing with asynchronous events and data streams.

ReactiveCocoa offers more resources and support because it has been around longer and has a larger community. It also offers a more elegant and expressive syntax for chaining processes. However, because of its functional nature and usage of monads, it can be less effective than RxSwift and has a steeper learning curve.

RxSwift has a more effective implementation and is under more active development, with regular updates and new features. In contrast to ReactiveCocoa, it features a smaller and less developed ecosystem as well as a less elegant syntax for chaining processes.